USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > The Wyoming Valley, upper waters of the Susquehanna, and the Lackawanna coal-region : including views of the natural scenery of northern Pennsylvania : from the Indian occupancy to the year 1875 > Part 26
USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Susquehanna > The Wyoming Valley, upper waters of the Susquehanna, and the Lackawanna coal-region : including views of the natural scenery of northern Pennsylvania : from the Indian occupancy to the year 1875 > Part 26
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JOSEPH J. ALBRIGHIT.
washed away the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's works. canals, etc., and almost plunged them into bankruptey; it also made a total wreck of his works, not leaving one stone upon another, his 3 per cent. loan and thousands more were washed down that creek.
There, with a devoted wife and two little chil- dren, he was suddenly made worse than penniless, and what to do next, was a problem not easily solved. At such a time the utmost fortitude that can be called up is inadequate to comfort, and an easy passage from life and its ills seems the great desideratum. Mr. Albright, was not, however, the man to despair, so he arranged with his cred- itors for an extension, and a year from the time it was destroyed, completed the rebuilding of the forge with greater capacity. Scarcely, however, had it been completed, when it was partially de- stroyed by fire, the elements seeming to combine to work his ruin. The damage was again re- paired, and work resumed, and an insurance affected upon the building, which thereafter showed no inclination to burn. Thus an oppor- tunity was offered him of paying his debts. Not liking the name Clarissa, and being a good Clay Whig, the works were re-christened and named the "Ashland Iron Works." The inclination at that day was to name furnaces after the given name of the proprietors' wives, hence Clarissa, Catharine, neither of which however, was Mrs. Albright's name. In 1844, in connection with the Hon. H. D. Maxwell, and Samuel Sherrard, he purchased a large tract of land and furnaces near the Natural Bridge, Va. Here, soon after the erection of a new furnace, one of the works was totally destroyed by fire. The iron interests under the ruinous tariff, had beeome so prostra- ted that it was impossible to make a profit, and having been compelled to sell rig iron at $10 per ton he determined to discontinue the manufac- ture in Virginia, and returned, in 1849, to the .Ashland Iron Works, Pa., accompained by the same devoted wife and four little ones. He had still retained the ownership of these works, becoming, however, somewhat weary of iron, associated so closely as it had been in his experi- ence with fire and water (letters were not unfre- quently addressed to him as the fire and water
iron master,) and a proposition being made in 1851 by his friends-the Scrantons-to take an important position in the town bearing their name, in the service of the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western Railroad Company, he ac- cepted and removed thereto, it being at that time little better than a wilderness, but now, having been developed by the energies of such men, the third city in Pennsylvania. In this position he assumed the entire control of the company's coal mines, sales of coal, etc., and it is conceded that upon his undeviating devotion to their interests for fifteen years, hinged the prosperity and success of their enterprise. In 1860, he was indueed to accept a similar position with the well-known and extensive corporation- the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company-a position he still retains, and of which Company Thomas Dickson is president, and who, in 1856, was induced by Mr. Albright, to remove from Carbondale to Scranton, where he established a machine-shop for the manufacture of all kinds of mining machinery. This is now known as the Dickson Manufacturing Company. The expla- nation produced to account for Mr. Dickson get- ting ahead of Mr. Albright appears to be that the former was expelled from school for pitching an inkstand at the facial adornment of a peda- gogue, and thereupon undertook the arduous task of driving one mule, while the latter, from cir- cumstar ces beyond control, never sccured an opportunity of driving less than two. During his sojourn in Scranton he has been identified with the growing interests of the place, and at the present time is president of the First National Bank-one of the most successful in the United States. He is also president of the Scranton Gas & Water Co. He has long been connect- ed with the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an exemplary member. It was whilst he was at Catharine Furnace that he became acquainted with David Thomas, of Catasauqua, to whom Mr. Albright accords the credit of making the first pig iron, with anthracite coal, as a success- ful operation in the United States.
In 1861, whilst the war was raging, through acquaintance in Richmond, Va., very liberal offers were made him to go to " Dixie " and
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THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
manufacture iron for the use of the Confederate forces. The proposal was somehow smuggled through the lines, and in due time received, the route being given through Missouri, by which he might reach there. A quotation from this epistle reads : "The purpose the North cherishes of occupying Virginia is simply absurd, as their soldiers run in every fight." Though he was willing enough to make iron for loyal men, nothing could induce him to become untrue to the great cause, and the letter remained unan- swered.
Thus runs the story of a life, teeming with in- centives and motives for the cultivation of pa- tience and energy. Though placed in the im- mediate way of temptation to smoke and use of the weed and drink, he resisted, and has found that he could succeed without theni. It is a remarkable fact, well worthy of mention, that of the five brothers, of which he was one, all of whom in early life assisted behind the counter of their father's store, where liquor and tobacco were dealt out as part of the ordinary merchan- dize (segars for a penny, and half Spanish two for one cent), not one of them used either the one or the other, and all of them .were strong advocates of the temperance cause. Three of these have been gathered to their fathers-the subject of this sketch at a good old age is vigor- ous and hearty-while the fifth, the Hon. S. J. Albright, is now and has been for many years residing at St. Louis, Mo. The father's example was not lost on the boys, he having strongly advocated temperance and the non-use of tobacco.
Though the hard earnings of a life were swept away in a day, he yet arose from his prostration and took a firmer grip. Through all the devious windings of a chequered career the principle of right has guided him. Placed in a position once to join the severed interest of capital and labor, he satisfied the former and did justice to the latter, always retaining the love and respect of those in his employ by his gentle manners. In his sixty-fourth year, he is yet in possession of unimpaired faculties, and surrounded by his devoted partner and interesting children, enjoys the fruit of his unremitting labors.
EDWARD W. WESTON.
The reports of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company for a term of years past are literally bespangled with the name of this con- stant worker-Edward W. Weston, the General Agent, in charge of the Real Estate of the com- pany. He was born in Salem, Wayne County. in this State, December 5th, 1823. His father, Elijah Weston, was an early resident of that county, his mother, being the daughter of Major Jason Torrey, who settled in Wayne county, about the year 1794.
Edward's earlier years were passed in Salem, his time being divided between attending a country school, working on a farm, driving a team, teaching school during the winter season, and land surveying.
In 1844, he removed to Honesdale, and en- tered into the business of surveying and engi- neering in the office of his uncle, John Torrey, then the principal Land Agency office in North- ern Pennsylvania. He remained here until 1859, when he was called to the Lackawanna Valley to take charge of the lands and surveys of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company.
In 1860, soon after the appointment of Thos. Dickson as Superintendent of the Coal Depart- ment of that company, the additional duties of Mining Engineer were assigned to Mr. Weston, and upon the accession of Mr. Dickson to the General Superintendency of the company's busi- ness, January, 1864. Mr. Weston was appointed Superintendent of the Coal Department in his place, which position he held until April, 1874, when in consequence of the largely increased business of the company, and the extent of coun- try over which its property and roads are located, it became necessary to separate the Real Estate from the Mining Department.
Mr. A. H. Vandling was then appointed Su- perintendent of the Coal Department, and Mr. Weston made General Agent in charge of all the real estate of the company, which position he now holds, to the satisfaction of the company, in every detail.
His faithfulness to duty, and constancy in at- tention, marks him a model officer.
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CHAPTER XXXII.
THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA & WESTERN RAILROAD, EMBRACING ALSO IN ITS POSSESSION, THE MORRIS & ESSEX R. R. CO., OSWEGO & SYRACUSE R. R. CO., UTICA, CHENANGO & SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY R. R. CO., SYRACUSE, BINGHAMTON & NEW YORK R. R. CO., AND THE LACKAWANNA & BLOOMSBURG R. R. CO. SAMUEL SLOAN, PRESIDENT.
For what from its own confines chang'd doth pass, Is straight the death of what before it was. -MONTAIGNE, vol. I, chap. XXI.
In the year 1817, the sparsely settled region along the Lackawanna river had become aroused to the importance of improving the navigation of that stream, and a company was incorporated at that time for this purpose, but nothing more in " a material manner ever took tangible shape. : Henry W. Drinker, then a landed proprietor in the district commonly known as the " Beech Woods," or Drinker's Beach," who died October 13th, 1866, was a man of more than ordinary perception and culture. Even at this early day his mind was active in contemplating different projects by which an outlet to the more exten- sively settled regions of Easton, New Jersey and New York could be reached, and to this end, in 1819, he explored the mountains and valleys from the Susquehanna at Pittston to the Dela- ware Water Gap, with a view of connecting the two points by a railroad to be operated by hy- draulic power where nature favored, and by horses in more isolated sections.
He was one of the four original master minds of the wilderness at that day, the three besides being William and Maurice Wurts, already noticed the chapter on the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company; and Thomas Meredith, of whom more hereafter. The interests of Drinker's Beech were uppermost in Mr. Drinker's mind, though the contemplated line would pass through the Slocum Hollow settlement
The original estate of the Drinker's numbered
some twenty-five thousand acres of unseated land, now embraced by the counties of Wayne, Pike and Luzerne. During the year 1787, Henry Drinker, Sr., of Philadelphia, father of the two sons, Henry W and Richard Drinker, purchased from the State these acres, and in the following year an effort was made by the two latter to .develop the tract by opening a highway through it. For a lack of means it failed for a time, but four years later, John Delong, of Stroudsburg, with a force of men cut a wagon road to these possessions.
The road cut by Delong, for lack of constant travel soon grew to underbrush, but it establish- ed a course, and the present eastern outlet is often called the Drinker Road, although the line of direction is not exactly parallel. In 1831, the father and two sons, visited Stoddardsville, a small village on the Lehigh, which owed its origin to one John Stoddard, an alien, from Philadelphia, who commenced lumber operations there. As it promised for the future to become somewhat of a business centre, the Drinkers next determined . to open a road in that direction.
The first clearing in Drinker's settlement was made in 1815, where a log house was crected, on nearly the same location that supported the later, and more finished Drinker residence. In 1816 a road was surveyed and opened which has also been known as the Drinker Road, extending from the Wilkes-Barre and Easton Turnpike, at
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THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
a point about a half mile above Stoddardsville, to the north and south road, near the Wallen- paupack bridge, a distance of thirty miles.
The Court Records of 1818, of the Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Wilkes-Barre, make mention as follows : " In honor of Brigadier- General Covington, who gallantly fell at the battle of Williamsburg, in Upper Canada, the Court called this township Covington." This township embraces the Drinker possession, and H. W. Drinker being an intimate friend of General Covington, this name was given to the new township at his suggestion.
As early as 1826, Mr. H. W. Drinker obtained a charter for a railroad, the object of which was to connect the Susquehanna river at Pittston with the Delaware at the Water Gap, the course to be up the Lackawanna from the former point, to Roaring Brook, which would take in Slocum Hollow, thence up the latter stream to Lake Henry, crossing the headsprings of the Lehigh, down the Pocono and the Analomink to the Gap. This evidently. would open a market, but the project was delayed, and not till eleven years afterward did the contemplated route have a practical survey.
In April, 1826, Mr. Drinker obtained an aet of incorporation of the " Susquehanna and Dela- ware Canal and Railroad Company." The charter implied either a railroad operated up the planes by water, or a canal a portion of the way. The original report displays at length, that horses were contemplated as the motive power between the planes ; toll houses were to be established along the line, and collectors appointed ; drivers or conductors, of " such wagon, carriage, or con- veyance, boat or raft, were to give the collectors notice of their approach to said toll-houses by blowing a trumpet or horn."
Henry W. Drinker, William Henry, David Scott, Jacob D. Stroud, Daniel Stroud, James N. Porter, A. E. Brown, S. Stokes, and John Cool- baugh, were the commissioners.
This crude plan for transportation never cul- minated to even partial construction, but it kept alive a germ of thought, which two such mien as Drinker and Henry, above named, would not allow to droop. A subscription was accordingly
started in 1830, by which a few hundred dollars was obtained ; with this limited fund they were enabled to employ Major Ephraim Beach, a civil engineer, to run a preliminary survey over the intervening country. The present line of the Southern Division of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western road is, in the main, much the same as that run by Beach.
In the Commissioners' Report of the route, 1832, it was stated that " iron in bars, pig, and castings, would be sent from the borders of the Delaware in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and that limestone in great quantities would be trans- ported from the same district and burned in the coal region, where fuel would be abundant and cheap·
What was known as the Meredith Railroad, was a contemporaneous project. Thomas Mere- dith, the projector conceived the idea of the route leading from the mouth of Leggett's ereek in Providence to Great Bend on the Susquehanna, forty-seven and a half miles above, called the Lackawannock and Susquehanna Railroad. It was surveyed by James Seymour, four years after the granting of its charter. It has also been extensively known as the Leggett's Gap Road, and the route chosen was about identical with that of the present Northern Division of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, leading from the city of Scranton through the Gap to Great Bend, and now continuing on to Binghamton. Neither road was ever expected to carry passengers ; such an idea in those days had not entered the brains of these pioneers. Hollister writes :
" The report of the Commissioners, presenting the subject in its most attractive light, failed to excite the attention it desired. Men reputed as reliable looked upon the scheme as unworthy of serious notice. Those who had achieved au in- different livelihood by the shot-gun or the plow, saw no propriety in favoring a plan whose ful- fillment promised no protection to yame or greater product to the field."
In the spring of 1832, the Company was or- ganized, a sufficient amount of stock having been subscribed, by which Henry W. Drinker was elected President, John Jordan, jr., Secretary,
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DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN R. R. CO.
and William Henry, Treasurer. The President and Treasurer were constituted a Financial Com- mittee to raise means to make the road, by selling stock, issuing bonds, or by hypotheeating the road, &c. The Engineer's map, the Com- missioners' report, and newspaper articles were distributed on every hand, announeing the ma- terial benefits which must result from the eom- pletion of the enterpise ; but, neither the Drinker or the Meredith charter grew in favor.
The Leggett's Gap Railroad, was expected, when completed, to receive the trade from the regions bordering on the Susquehanna, Chenango and Chemung Rivers. Public meetings were ealled by its friends at the old Exchange in Wall Street, New York, to obtain subscriptions to the stoek of the company, and while many persons acknowledged the enterprise to be a matter of more than common interest to the country, yet a hesitancy was manifested which affeeted the project materially, still, capitalists had, had their attention drawn to this eentre, which gave hope, or impulse, at least.
At length, engagements were made with New York capitalists to carry the matter forward to a favorable termination, provided that Drinker and his friends would obtain a charter for a continu- ous line of gravity railroad up the Susquehanna, from Pittston to the New York State line. In 1838, a perpetual charter for such a road was obtained by their agency, and the first install- ment of five dollars was paid, according to the Aet of Assembly. It was then considered that in connection with other roads, at or near the Delaware Water Gap to New York city, it would be, with its terminus at Jersey city eastwardly, and the State line near Athens, Bradford county : westward, the shortest and the best line in the natural avenues indieated from New York west.
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The New York and Erie Railroad was en- grossing the attention of Southern New York at this time. Of the seven Commissioners, John B. Jervis, Horatio Allen, Jared Wilson, and William Dewey urged the adoption of the route now used by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Company, while F. Whittlesey, Orville W. Childs and Job Pierson reported adversely to it.
The New York gentlemen interested in Drink- er's route, were greatly encouraged to hope for suceess ; and although nothing had yet been done toward construction, yet several seetions in the "Susquehanna Railroad " law were, by sup- plements, so amended by legislative enact ments as to fulfil upon that point every expectation. The commercial embarrass ments of 1835-6-7 retarded further speculation, and the route and its prospeets languished for want of friends.
In the summer of 1836, an English nobleman, named Sir Charles Agustus Murray, became interested in the project while on a traveling tour on this continent. A correspondence ensued, which led to a meeting of the friends of the road, at Easton, June 18th, 1836. Messrs. Drinker and Henry, on the part of the Railroad company, and Messrs. Armstrong of New York, Murray of England, and Clemson of New Jersey wrote articles of association. The Committee authorized Mr. Murray to raise, as he proposed to do, 100,000 pounds sterling in England, on a condition precedent that the company would raise the means to make a beginning of the work. Mr. William Henry accompanied him to New York, and furnished him with a power of attorney, and on the 8th of August, 1836, Mr. Murray sailed for his home. Mr. Henry at onee met and made arrangements with the Morris Canal Board of Directors to raise $150,000 on stoek subscriptions, to commence the road, but before these arrangements had matured, news arrived from England through Mr. Murray, that the prostrated monetary affairs of Europe would not admit of any speculation for the time being.
This meeting at Easton, the reader will recall, in the chapter on the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, as the one in which Mr. Henry laid out his views on the iron and eoal resources of the Lackawanna Valley, thereby winning Mr. Armstrong over to the idea of purehasing lands. The subsequent purchase by Henry and Arm- strong-the latter's death-the substitution of Col. George W. and Selden T. Scranton as part- ners has already been explained.
The old routes, with all of their legislative enactments, and supplements, and altered names and plans seemed no nearer consummation than
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THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
at the beginning. Its final success was due to the advent of Col. George W. Scranton, more than any other single individual. He entered at once, and heartily, into the idea of an outlet, and that by locomotive power instead of the gravity system. The charter of the Leggett's road had been kept alive by the influence of Dr. Andrew Bedford, Thomas Smith, Nathaniel Cottrill, and others, and was purchased, at the suggestion of Colonel Scranton, in 1849. A sur- vey was made during the same year.
The first meeting of the Commissioners to ob- tain subscriptions to the capital stock, was held at Harrison, (now Scranton), March 7th, 1849, and the amount of stock then subscribed by fifty six individuals, was 5,026 shares, at $50 each, amounting to $251,30. The date of the charter signed by Governor William F. Johnson, was March 14th, 1849. The first meeting of the stockholders for election of officers, was held at Harrison, January 2, 1850. H. W. Drinker elected Chairman, and John S. Sherred, Secre- tary. Wm. H. Tripp, and Joseph C. Platt were judges of election.
The officers elected for 1850, were John J. Phelps, President; Selden T. Scranton, Trea- surer, and Charles F. Mattes, Secretary. Man- agers : John I. Blair, Henry W. Drinker, Joseph C. Platt, Jeremiah Clark, Andrew Bed- ford, George W. Scranton, Joseph H. Scranton, Fred. R. Griffin, Daniel S. Miller and Charles Fuller.
The term of office was short in duration, for on the 27th of March, less than three months afterward, nearly all resigned. Roswell Sprague of New York, was elected instead of S. T. Scran- ton, as Treasurer; Henry Hotchkis, of New Haven, Conn., in place of Charles F. Mattes. Of the Managers, but four of the original re- mained, viz: George W. Scranton, John I. Blair, Fred. R. Griffin and Daniel S. Miller. In the stead of the remainder there were elected John Howland, Wm. E. Dodge, Edward Mowry, Drake Mills and Moses W. Scott, all of New York, and J. B. Williams, of Ithaca, N. Y. The immense flow of capital from these individu- als caused the change.
The following day, March 28, Col. George W.
Scranton was appointed General Agent, and on October 20th, 1851, the road was so far com- pleted, under his personal superintendence as to be open for traffic. It is due also to the associ- ates of Col. Scranton, proprietors of the Iron Works at Harrison, under the special partnership firm of Scrantons & Platt, to acknowledge the large indebtedness of the railroad company to those gentlemen for the very efficient and valua- ble aid rendered by them in the organization and prosecution of this enterprise.
To provide the additional means requisite to finish and equip the road, and for opening and improving the coal lands, further subscriptions to the capital stock were received, and the $900,000 of the mortgage bonds authorized by the charter, were issued, all of which were taken by the original subscribers.
By an act of the Legislature, passed April, 1851, the corporate name of the company was changed to "The Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company," and this was the Northern Division. The charter of the Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad Company, for a railroad from Scranton, through Cobb's Gap, to the Dela- ware River, bears date April, 1849, and the company was organized in December 1850. This was the Southern Division.
By an act, approved March 10th, 1853, the two companies were consolidated under the name of " The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company," and measures were immedi- ately adopted to construct the road from Scranton to the Delaware river ; the necessary surveys having been previously made by E. McNeil, Esq , Chief-Engineer of the Company. Books were opened for subscriptions to increase the capital stock, which at the date of the consolida- tion amounted to $1,441,000, and such was the confidence felt in the success of the enterprise, not only by the original stockholder, but by other capitalists, that the whole sum required, $1,500,000, was taken in a few day.
As a matter of convenience in keeping the accounts, the entire line of the road was divided into two sections-the Northern and Southern Divisions; the former extending from Scranton to Great Bend, a distance of fifty miles ; and the
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الأساس
JOSEPH J. ALBRIGHT.
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DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN R. R. CO.
latter, extending southeasterly to the point of junction with the New Jersey Railroads on the Delaware River, five miles below the Water Gap, sixty-one miles in length.
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